International Women’s Day at Oxfam Boutique

Last Friday evening, I attended the International Women’s Day celebrations at Oxfam Boutique on St Mary Street.

The shop was packed with people when we arrived and the event kicked off with a fashion show displaying the designs of students from Coleg Morgannwg who had used clothes that were not suitable for sale in the shop to create new items. These clothes are now available for purchase at the Boutique.

Local comedian Mab Jones then performed a comedy set with an assortment of hilarious rhyming poems and there were several live music performances from some very talented local musicians.

There was also an auction with some great items up for grabs, including a dress donated from One Show presenter Alex Jones, and some great artwork and jewellery.

Dress donated by Alex Jones

Oxfam Boutique also host “stitch and bitch” sessions on Thursday evenings from 6-8pm where you can make items to sell in the shop. Read my review of the “stitch and bitch” sessions here.

Stitch and Bitch at Oxfam Boutique

This week I attended a Stitch and Bitch session at Oxfam Boutique on St Mary’s Street. This get together, which takes place every Thursday evening from 6-8pm, and is open to any-one, offers a great opportunity to socialise and use donated textiles and fabrics to make new items which can be sold in the shop or used to decorate it.

This week we made Valentine’s Day bunting, to be displayed in the shop window, by cutting up old fabrics into heart shapes and sewing them together on string. Future projects include making fascinators out of donated combs and knitting.

For those who haven’t yet been, Oxfam Boutique is very different to many other charity shops as it is  selective in what it sells, offering and displaying high quality clothes in an attractive boutique style in their up-market premises.  It also has an impressive vintage section and a great variety of jewellery as well as being tastefully decorated, with all the clothes displayed in colour co-ordinated sections.

The Boutique has joined up with design students at local college Coleg Morgannwg who are up-cycling old clothes, originally unsuitable for sale in the shop, to create new garments. These up-styled clothes will be unveiled at a fashion show in the shop on Friday 9^th March from 7pm and will then be available to purchase.

The fashion show will be part of a wider event, hosted by the shop, celebrating International Women’s Day and there will be other entertainment as well as a raffle and food.

So, if you are interested in attending a lovely evening and helping charity, come to Bitch and Stitch next Thursday where we will be making more bunting; this time as decoration for the fashion show, which also promises to be a fun-filled interesting event!